Thursday, March 13, 2008

Carbon Fast for Lent: Ban the Bottle

The Fifth Thursday in Lent
Ban the bottle: consider buying a reusable water bottle. Or pick one up as a thoughtful gift for a disposable water bottle-toting friend.

Since I skipped some of the more prayer-based Carbon Fast activities in favor of more action-oriented items: I now have a few extra days to fill. For the next couple days we’ll be DIY carbon fasting as I create a few new activities on my own.

Last fall Carbon Conscious Consumer blogged about San Francisco’s efforts to ban single-serving plastic water bottles. It takes energy to make them, energy to recycle them — and their recycling rates are lower than one might think, since so much of this water is consumed away from home. There are so many choices in reusable water bottles, yet this was an area where I was very slow to change my ways. Even in a university community where everyone carries a backpack, most with water bottles attached — I was too lazy and unmotivated to get with the program. Anyone who knows me won’t be surprised to learn it took a consumer item to make me a convert. Is this SIGG aluminum bottle cute or what? The only drag is they do dent when you drop them. But overall I love this and I tote it everywhere.

Today’s mitzvah: Where do you use the most disposable plastic each day? Is there a fix that would shift this from a recyclable container to a reusable one?


4 comments:

Amy said...

I have seen these bottles start to pop up, and they are definitely cute, but I kind of have a mental block against drinking out of a metal container. Does it make your water taste metallic??

jen x said...

Yeah, I wouldn't use aluminum for a long time -- for any use -- but I'm OK with these bottles.

I don't get any metallic taste -- if anything I think this takes "cleaner" than water out of nalgene [sp?] plastic bottles. But this may be an matter of taste, no pun intended.

Roo said...

Interesting comment about it tasting of metal, the aluminum used in sigg bottles does have a protective coating, though not sure how long this will last before it starts to break down.
An alternative to sigg is the bottles produced by Kleen Kanteen, as these are made from stainless steel, so no chance of aluminum poising no matter how long you drink from them. Stainless Steel is not reactive so you won't taste metal either. They also look pretty funky too!

jen x said...

Roo, I hadn't considered a barrier that could eventually break down. Yikes. Stainless steel sounds like a very good alternative. Thanks for the tip!